The Scandahoovian
Sauna
Cold Plunge
Adventure
Food
Habits
Sauna
I started saunaing as a child at a local resort my parents would take me to. I still use that sauna to this day. Yelling at kids to shut the door, fully knowing that they could potentially be me in 20 years. I love it so much. A sauna is a special place that brings other adventure and wellness nuts together. Its incredible power is standing at the threshold, open the door to the hot room and stay in the hot room.
Cold Plunge
A new addition to my practice. Cold water is a much bigger challenge than hot air. I am training for an adventure that involves cold water and reporting about its effects on the big picture of my life.
Food and Habits
My passionate love affair with food started in health and wellness. Most chef kids are enamored with Foodnetwork, I did love that. But you would find me making fruit terrines and lean chicken breasts I learned about on the Fit Channel, or applying three layers of lotion and dry brushing before skiing. It just felt like what I was supposed to do at that time to perform at my peak. Little did I know, these habits I started by myself at a very young age, would have profound effects on my health in the long run. Seconding its long-term effect would be its ease of lifestyle. I can’t imagine trying to love the healthfood store as an adult. I only like it because I knew where to find the sugar as a kid and what most of the stuff in there does as an adult. Supplements are special.
Introducing… The Scandahoovian
Meet @MynameisMonaya, a 38-year-old on-your-own woman who embodies balance and authenticity in her personal and professional life. She has a deep connection to her Scandinavian alter ego, The Scandahoovian, which guides her approach to health and wellness.
As a licensed drone pilot and professional LandRover Defender overland driver, Monaya has a passion for adventure and exploring new places. Her Scandahoovian alter ego inspires her to seek balance and harmony in everything she does, from her travels to her diet and daily routines. As above, as below.
Monaya is an accomplished chef with experience in fine dining and French patisserie. She has spent many days in a production dungeon perfecting croissants, custards, and her beloved flourless chocolate cake. She collects recipes, techniques, and applications from unlikely places, like the garage or a path full of rocks. Her Scandahoovian alter ego drives her belief that food should be delicious, nourishing, simple, and memorable.
As a coach and consultant, Monaya takes a holistic approach to her clients’ lives, many of who have experienced single success, divorce, and empty nests. She works with them to balance their professional, personal, and secret lives. The Agency is her development company can be found here. She asks tough questions and provides constructive accountability, which she has found lacks a safe space in men’s lives. The Scandahoovian alter ego is a guiding force in this work, reminding her of the importance of simplicity, hard work, connection to nature, and balance.
Monaya’s dedication to health and wellness is evident in every aspect of her life, from her daily routines to her work as a coach and consultant. Her Scandahoovian alter ego is integral to her approach, helping her stay grounded and centered as she navigates life’s challenges. Those who work with Monaya have experienced firsthand the transformative power of her guidance, and her approach to health and wellness has inspired many to embrace a more balanced and fulfilling way of life.
Wellness
Adventure
Nurishment
Let me introduce the hot box
I have never left a kitchen before being told to do so. The same goes for the sauna. The practice of one hour daily sauna came about as a culmination of wilderness camp shower rituals, hot yoga, and Burning Man. There was a series of years in which I just lived through my misery in pursuit of snow. About 20 days of the misery years were spent in what most would consider one of the most miserable places on the planet. Barren of water, animals, and plants, the black rock desert turns into something else for a week. Heat exhaustion would just be a way of life that week of every year until 2011, when I tried hot yoga to acclimate myself to heat. It worked. That year, the man I was living with brought home a loyal guy on the couch from Burning Man. This would be the end of that relationship and a new relationship with a stronger version of myself.
Your first hot yoga session will always hand you your own ass.
To escape the two of them for at least some hours in a day, I would go to hot yoga at a studio an hour away. The class was 90 minutes. Sometimes, I did two classes in a day. If you love hot yoga, you probably remember your very first class and having your ass entirely handed to you. Yoga pants, a tee shirt, and a mat. Why don’t these people have any clothes on? Am I not supposed to wear pants? Thirty minutes into this, you could ring your mat out and fill a bucket with your sweat, and you might crap your pants if you don’t leave now. Upon returning, your mat has a towel and a water bottle at the corner. Frans is nodding for you to take the mat. The studio is just steps above beach level with windows overlooking Lake Tahoe, a “you can’t fuck it up” sort of place. If you can’t do the class, just lie down.
Minnesota is the capital of Saunas in the United States.
Moving back to Minnesota in 2013 would move me from the yoga studio at 105º F with 55% humidity, jumping into Lake Tahoe after to 195º F at 12% humidity. Not even thirty days had passed before I found some way to remedy the need for the heat, taking a position as a pastry chef during the day and hitting the sauna in the evening. The heat of a sauna is quite different from a hot yoga studio. It’s much more intense, as is the response from your body. Breathing, depending on the temperature, can be more restricted. Hearing can sound muffled, so people talk louder. Cardio is just happening while you sit there. Breaking into daily sauna practice with six rounds of ten minutes in the sauna, with two-minute breaks. That’s how it all started. Seven days later, be still. See how long you can sit there before leaving. Thirty-eight minutes. Not bad.
Some sort of heat therapy has been in my life since 2011. I am at my best when this is consistent. That is not to say I have more energy or feel better; that is a by-product benefit for me. The cognitive clarity obtained from the extreme practice of daily sauna is unparalleled.
There has to be more to this…
A few hundred sauna sessions later, I thought back to all the times I had been in a sauna before starting the consistent practice. In my youth, my dad always took me to the sauna to warm up after the pool. Me, sitting there with my lips chattering. He would stand there with me for about ten minutes. I imagine he was teetering from drinking beers and hitting the sauna. Me? Over here, curled up on a bench, sung as a bug in a rug. But do you remember the hottest room you have ever been in? Wilderness camp allowed me, as a 13-year-old girl, to not shower for almost 30 days straight. While in camp, everyone uses the sauna and jumps off a cliff into the river. The sauna has one tiny window, fits twenty or so campers, and has PVC pipe coming out of the floor to breathe if you get too hot. Whatever you do, don’t open the door.
SAUNA FAQ –
Usually, once a week, during my practice, someone asks…
- Q) How long do you do this for?
- A) How long have I been saunaing daily? Or how long do I stay in the sauna?
I have had a heat therapy practice for 10ish years, and I sauna for a minimum an hour. - Q) You sauna every day?
- A) I sauna every day.
- Q) Why do you sauna every day?
- A) I sauna every day because It feels good.
- Q) No, but, like, what does sauna do to you?
- A) It makes me nicer. Sauna makes me a nicer person.
- Q) No, but like what does sauna do to your body?
- A) The sauna burns stuff. Moves stuff. While you are still. Sauna is good for your cardio system. I can’t list all the reasons I sauna or all the benefits I get from a sauna. I do 40-50 minutes of yoga, and the cooldown is a ten-minute meditation time. What I notice the most immediately in the winter is that it helps with my circulation outside as I’m always cold.
- Q)So the only workout you do is sauna?
- A) Inside the sauna, I do yoga, situps, isometrics, and body weight, and I brought a bike
and weights in here while triathlon training. - Q) But you look like that from sauna?
- A) Sure. And genetics. Sauna’s benefits go far deeper than physical appearance. But it does make the experience feel like a meat suit trap. Many other things take place during the sauna session that is an added by-product, like water intake, meditation, and detoxing the body.
Science Resources for Sauna
https://hubermanlab.com/deliberate-heat-exposure-protocols-for-health-and-performance/
https://medium.com/@juanpabloaranovich/sauna-deliberate-heat-exposure-d318f0693c2e
https://cedarandstonesauna.com/faqs/
https://honehealth.com/edge/health/rhonda-patrick-supplements-sauna-smoothie/
